On May 3, 1999, the first-ever tornado to receive the "tornado emergency" distinction tore across central Oklahoma. That tornado was so high-end, and so close to a large metropolitan area, that forecasters decided to invoke "emergency" to convey a sense of the unusually serious peril. 

It took quite a while for scientists to gauge the full scope of the damage produced by the 1974 Super Outbreak. One fateful step in this process was when the eminent tornado researcher Tetsuya Theodore “Ted” Fujita flew over and photographed damage tracks. What Fujita discovered in those survey flights a half-century ago ended up transforming aviation safety, and likely saving many thousands of lives.

During Bob Henson’s recent Weather Band webinar looking at the August 10, 2020 derecho event that tore through the midwest of the United States, one of the questions that came up was “how is climate change impacting wind events?” As Mr. Henson explained, not only are derecho events hard to predict, but based on current research it is impossible to answer how they are being altered by climate change.

Explore the meteorology behind the most destructive thunderstorm complex in U.S. history in this exciting webinar with renowned meteorologist and science writer Bob Henson. 

A discussion by AMS Weather Band Maestro Bob Henson on the terminology and distinctions of winter precipitation, such as snow, sleet, graupel, and ice pellets Bob highlights the importance of accurate reporting and recording of precipitation types in understanding and analyzing winter storms.